22/08/2024 - After following in Herzog's footsteps in Dear Werner, the Spaniard now tries to live inside a film by the Italian director in his new documentary

Shooting has just begun in Italy for Pablo Maqueda’s new film Caro Nanni, a road trip through the country and the filmography of Nanni Moretti. Filming began in Madrid, and before coming to Italy, it stopped at Barcelona and Menton, in France. Now his team of ten will tour the cities of Piedmont, Turin, Rimini, Ferrara, Bologna, Salò, Naples, Venice, Rome, Catania, Sicily and the Aeolian Islands.

Thirty years after the release of Nanni Moretti's Dear Diary, Maqueda sets out on a journey from Madrid to Rome through the films that changed his life. A road movie that invites the viewer to join his adventure and to reflect with humour and irony on our own transformation.

During the film’s development phase, Maqueda was also advised by Isabel Coixet, honorary prize-winner at the 2024 European Film Awards, and Maite Alberdi, Oscar nominee for The Eternal Memory and The Mole Agent [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maite Alberdi
film profile].

With this feature, the filmmaker from Madrid questions himself. Have you ever wondered which film you would like to live in if you could? Well, for him it is sunny Italy in the 1993 flick Dear Diary. He therefore sets out on this journey from Madrid to Rome, through all the films that changed our lives.

“Newly married and 38 years old, the same age Moretti was when he started working on his film, I decide to learn to ride a motorbike to follow in the footsteps of his filmography and the iconic locations of Italian cinema on a scooter, in Moretti style, in order to try to answer a question: what does it mean to be a filmmaker today, and what can I bring to the world?” he comments. “Halfway between a travel diary, a video selfie and a political documentary, along the way I want to discover how 2023 Madrid and Roman society has evolved compared to that of 1993. A documentary where I’ll leave a seat free so that you can join me on my journey,” he concludes.

Pablo Maqueda is back on the road after his 2020 documentary Dear Werner (Walking on Cinema) [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pablo Maqueda
film profile], in which he collaborated with the great German filmmaker Werner Herzog. He also returns to non-fiction after releasing his first fiction feature last year, Girl Unknown [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pablo Maqueda
film profile], which screened at the Málaga Film Festival and BIFAN in South Korea.

Produced by Haizea Viana, Sandra Hermida and Javier Rollo and an associated production of Redibis Film (Italy), Caro Nanni is a production of Viva Media Films with Colosé Producciones. It includes the participation of RTVE, Movistar Plus+ and Filmin as the winning project of the Mallorca Talents Lab of Atlántida Mallorca Film Fest 2023, and it participated in the Spanish Film Academy 2023-2024 Residencies.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)